Kayonga Tedesco forced himself to put aside the emotions coursing through his consciousness after the confrontation moments earlier with the commander of Callisto Base. He was taking all his concentration to pilot the shuttle Pinega into […]
We walked by the canal at Nyhavn harbor, Copenhagen, looking for a good place to eat. The sun had nearly set in the distance, and neon drones covered the street in red, blue, and green […]
1. It was a beautiful, sun-drenched Saturday morning when 42-year-old Charlie Duncan opened the front door of his single-family home and strolled down the walkway, between the flanking rose bushes, to retrieve his newspaper. His back ached […]
( Audio Credits: Reading by Sam A. Mowry, Soundscape by David Ian ) He checked through passport control, an unbearable line that seemed to grow instead of shrink, but he finally handed his Ident capsule […]
If she could only talk to her mother, Kris thought, she could figure out what to do, what to say, what to think even. How to handle this situation like her mother, Captain Donna Lynd, […]
“But why? Why should they die?” asked Eteract. “You say, Gurovvu, that it’s their own doing, and that we have no obligations here. That much is true, but still, we could do something, if we […]
Gren hurried down the wide corridor, his hooves clicking against the cold stone tiles in a frantic staccato rhythm that matched his agitated state of mind. “Who installs stone tiles on a naval flagship? […]
For Rosalyn June 3, 2072 She woke. In the flow of seconds, she suppressed a cry of dismay, of terror, of loneliness. Elisabeth was three years old. She was in her bed, […]
“What price would you pay to fix your greatest mistake?” The question hung in the air between us, the weight of it at odds with the situation we found ourselves in. I looked […]
“Friend, what is your opinion of Emperor Justinian’s new reprobate re-education program?” “Reprobate I understand; re-education I understand; but what is this thing called an opinion?” (An ancient witticism, attributed to an […]
The comm-pad on the table between them chimed, a new notification scrolling across its otherwise dark screen. Ya’teng picked it up, a pained look spreading across his face before he slammed the device down in […]
And so, in these latter days, you come here to our mines. You, the first children of creation, the children of the sun. The bright ones. The mirror-shiny helms you wear mean we could […]
The universe is a big place. Insanely big, really. We all know it, intellectually at least, if perhaps not with the same bone-deep certainty with which we know those things that we can see, […]
The lights came up gently in Gordon’s sleeping pod. The bed was tiny but sufficient to fit his six-foot frame in extraordinary comfort. Like everything surrounding him, it had been designed with exquisite efficiency […]
After nine incident reports and working well beyond the standard close of business, Trudy Coleman was ready to jettison the day job. With rapid fire mouse clicks she slayed the tunnel of apps and windows that were her […]
Anxiety wormed its way through the Gardener’s mind after the seeds began using tools. It took time for seeds to germinate. There were moments when the Gardener worried the Omnidem had miscalculated either the double system’s […]
Miranda Ayodele glowered at the not-quite-human being slumped on the rear bench of her rover. “I should have left you to die.” Wide, dark eyes with cybernetic irises gazed back. Slender fingers lowered the rover’s […]
“Hold on,” Cordwainer said, standing up from his navigation station and facing the clients. “Are you talking live cargo? I thought we were transporting a load of horns.” “Bowble horns are no good less’n they’re […]
As for why they needed an Egyptologist on bloody Mars of all places, I couldn’t tell. And no, it was not for the sake of the supposed ‘pyramid’ that people were losing their minds […]
I spotted the tourists before they even fully entered the bar, as they bounded too high in the Lunar gravity. One bumped his head on the entrance. Moments later I heard laughter. I pitched an ear […]
Truthfully, it started off as a joke. One shared between Gretchen, Annie, TJ, and I around a mess table on the lunar base, drinking in celebration of Gretchen’s daughter’s college graduation. Drinking too heavily, […]
“Knowledge and imagination are the life buoy and the extra lung for breathing outside the walls of a tainted reality.” Hassan Blasim Rob cursed at himself, loudly and long and with great creativity. He […]
Believe it or not, this is the very first 850 word story of something like the ten I wrote for NATURE maybe at least a decade ago and now with AI they can really do […]
No, uh, kidding, I really did my scientific homework and wrote this story, and NATURE really did publish it. Your Majesty, members of the Swedish Academy, fellow Nobel Laureates, Ladies, Gentlemen, and others, including former […]
Terrance dug a groove into a slab of limestone, stenciling an ideograph into a large flat surface. It proved delicate work. The soft rock tended to chip and crack at the slightest application of horn, […]
Patrons of the Bar-Soom fall into three classes. Some people believe the whole “Coldest Beer on Mars” thing. Some come for the view of Hellas Lake. But mostly, they come to hear the owner, Dave […]
David Brin’s bold novel EXISTENCE explores the ultimate question: Billions of planets may be ripe for life, even intelligence. So where is Everybody? Do civilizations make the same fatal mistakes, over and over? Might we […]
Finally, he had been chosen. He’d spent twelve years working the Kuiper belt, refining the processes and approaches for unmanned ships containing robot miners. He was one of the Company’s best engineers, and he was […]
Mars. The red planet. Imagine dust, rocks, sand, and wind. You’d be ninety-eight percent right. ‘Only ninety-eight percent?’ I hear you all asking. If you’re wondering where you lost that two percent, don’t […]
Captain Takktun Kantari slid the bubble helmet over his head and locked it into place with a reassuring click before triple-checking the joint seals on each of his suit’s four legs and three arms. Several […]
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